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The Museum’s Collections document the fate of Holocaust victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through artifacts, documents, photos, films, books, personal stories, and more. Search below to view digital records and find material that you can access at our library and at the Shapell Center.

Condensed milk factory owned by the de Kadt family

Angle view of the front of the original factory building of De Nieuw Beemster at Tuingracht 32, De Rijp, with the half-finished building visible next-door; a man stands on a beam and peers down into the new building from above; panning the construction site; various shots of mixing and laying cement; 01:04:45 A suited man and a man in a white coat pose together in front of the partially-built brick walls of the new building; close-ups of scaffolding; 01:06:05 A group of men hoist the building's main rafter, with a large Dutch flag attached; close-up of the flag against a cloudy sky; aerial view of the site and the town beyond; aerial view of the waterway and lowlands beyond the town; 01:08:25 View of the construction from the ground, while the pile driver operates; 01:09:56 The completed facade of the new building, complete with a sign reading "De Nieuwe Beemster"; 01:11:09 an intertitle shows a drawing of a cow, along with the letters "DEKA." DEKA was the brand name of the milk product.

Samuel and Margaretha Swaap surreptitiously found hiding places for their grandchildren, Wilhelmina (age 2) and Maarten (age 8 months) in August 1942. The children's parents, Louis de Kadt, 29 (born May 13, 1913), and Sonja Rita de Kadt-Swaap, 22 (born October 8, 1919), were murdered in Auschwitz on August 10, 1942. They were rounded up from their home in Amsterdam, forced to gather in the Hollandsche Schouwburg theater, and deported to the transit camp Westerbork, and later to Auschwitz. Wilhelmina lived outside Amsterdam in hiding with a devout Catholic family called van der Zijden, while Maarten was housed by a Protestant couple nearby. Wilhelmina says, "We weren't far apart. I was able to visit my brother occasionally, but I didn't know he was my brother. I thought he was just a friend." Samuel and Margaretha Swaap were deported from Westerbork to Bergen Belsen on May 19, 1944; Samuel died there in February 1945. Margaretha was freed from the camp but hospitalized for two months as she recovered from deprivation-related illnesses. At 52, she immigrated to New York with the children and reunited with her surviving daughter. Margaretha retrieved the family's possessions, including these films.

Third party must sign a USHMM Film License Agreement in order to reproduce and use this film footage.

Record last modified: 2018-08-08 16:29:06
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1005068

Also in de Kadt Family Collection

The de Kadt family home movies show typical daily family life, with special attention paid to young children Wilhelmina and Martin, as well as rare scenes of the family’s condensed milk factory, which opened in De Rijp, Netherlands in May 1941, a year after the Nazi invasion. Most of the family scenes were filmed between 1940 and 1942. In August 1942 Martin and Wilhelmina’s grandparents found the children hiding places with two Christian families; only their grandmother survived and was liberated from Bergen-Belsen.

Willie de Kadt and another toddler play with a tricycle outdoors, they plant a Dutch flag; one pets a sleeping dog and smiles at the camera. Dutch newsprint announcing the opening of a new factory in De Rijp, Netherlands.

Slow pan of a city on a waterway; tree-lined banks and steepled buildings; extended views of the flatlands across the water from town, including a windmill and people working in the fields; 01:01:17 detailed views of the edifices of various buildings in the town of De Rijp, and of a canal, taken from an upstairs window; 01:02:56 Slow pan of a smokestack and chimney emanating steam; surrounding houses and industrial buildings; the sign on one building reads "De Beemster" at Tuingracht 32; 01:05:09 A man drives a horse-drawn cart carrying metal milk canisters; the interior workings of the milk factory, including pumps, timing belts, and milk canisters being filled; 01:08:03 A white-coated factory worker helps to make, and others label, packages of condensed milk; 01:11:05 Men shovel coal into a wheelbarrow; steam escapes the factory through a side door; bricks and rubble lay in the vacant lot next-door; a close-up of the factory's sign, reading "De Beemster"; 01:13:02 Two men smile at the camera from the other side of a wooden fence; a young boy leans against a cart in the yard adjacent to the factory; 01:13:44 Panning close-up of a tall piece of wooden construction equipment; construction begins on the lot next to the old factory; using the crane to move large logs across the site and hoist them into the air; a pile driver hammers the logs into the ground; men use saws to cut down the piles to a uniform height; 01:18:20 concrete is poured to lay the foundation atop the piles; a bricklayer works to build the factory's new walls; 01:20:08 Sonja de Kadt, the wife of the factory owner, shakes hands and lays the ceremonial cornerstone, and receives a bouquet of flowers; men and women watch the ceremony and talk; construction workers at work; the new concrete floor and the wooden scaffolding.

Toddler Wilhelmina (Willie) and a baby picnic on the lawn with three adults; 01:02:39 Willie gets a haircut outdoors (because she had eczema) and roams naked in the grass; 01:06:09 Willie is sprayed with water by an adult standing behind the camera, and bathes in a metal tub outdoors. She holds a teddy bear and plays in the yard with glasses; 01:10:42 Willie carries a bouquet of flowers across the lawn toward the camera.

Sonja de Kadt feeds a bottle to the baby laying across her lap, while a dog looks on; the woman holds Willie's arm up to wave to the camera, shows her various toys, and puts her finger in her mouth to show off the first teeth; 01:01:25 Willie walks with her mother's help, and is fed; 01:04:51 an older woman, probaby best friend Kees van Wyck's wife, holding her baby daughter; mother Sonja de Kadt holds Willie in winter 1940-1941; 01:07:35 mother Sonja pushes Willie outdoors in a stroller in front of the family's home in Schoorl, Netherlands; 01:12:02 Father Louis de Kadt walks slowly toward the camera down the lane in front of their home; 01:12:41 Family shots outdoors; Willie learns to walk on the grass in front of her house, with help from her mother and her grandfather; 01:15:03 Willie eats and plays with toys in her crib; pushes her stroller down the lane; walks with father Louis in the garden; in the garden with mother Sonja, father Louis, and several other adults, including Margaretha and Samuel Swaap.

Quick shots of a woman walking away from the camera, baby, a man working on railroad tracks, Sonja carrying Willie in a crowd of people, a house from across a set of railroad tracks, while a train passes; 01:00:54 a road sign reads "Laag Soeren" (a village 140 km away from the de Kadt family home in Schoorl); 01:01:27 a large group of adults, including Sonja and Louis de Kadt, wait for a train, walk together on a country road in winter; a male adult pulling a stroller does an imitation of a goose-step; good CUs; hotel; 01:04:14 a group portrait including two strollers; Sonja's younger sister Agnes rides in one of the strollers; they walk along a country road; 01:05:42 Sonja poses in front of a field of felled trees, and plays with a dog; views of a field and forest beyond; close-ups of Willie and another child (possibly the daughter of one of Sonja and Lou's best friends, Kees van Wyck) in their strollers; 01:07:01 a large ship travels up a canal; men operate a set of locks, using long sticks to break the ice on the canal's surface in order to close the locks; the boat sails away; visitors; 01:11:26 another lock in operation.

Sonja and Louis de Kadt each push Willie on a sleigh on a snowy day, as does another adult (possibly a nanny); Willie plays in the snow; 01:03:03 Indoors, close-up of Willie and a baby (possibly Maarten as the can label indicates); Willie romps in the snow; the village in winter, seen from across rows of fences; Willie and baby (Maarten?) ride in a sleigh.

Learn about over 1,000 camps and ghettos in Volume I and II of this encyclopedia, which are available as a free PDF download. This reference provides text, photographs, charts, maps, and extensive indexes.